CDC chief Rochelle Walensky RESIGNS after just two years in office after being criticized for agency’s handling of Covid
- The director was in her position for two years and will retire at the end of June
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tendered her resignation Friday, saying the easing of the Covid pandemic was a good time to make a transition.
Dr. Walensky’s last day is June 30, CDC officials said, and no interim director was immediately named. She sent a letter of resignation to President Joe Biden and announced the decision at a CDC staff meeting.
Walensky, 54, has been director of the agency for just over two years. In her letter to Biden, she expressed “mixed feelings” about the decision and did not say exactly why she was stepping down, but said the nation is in transition as emergency declarations come to an end.
“I’ve never been so proud of anything I’ve done in my professional career,” she wrote.
The World Health Organization said on Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency and that the US public health emergency is set to expire next week. The number of deaths in the US is at its lowest point since the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in early 2020.
CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky (pictured) will step down from her position on June 30 following a tumultuous tenure at the agency
The CDC, with a budget of $12 billion and more than 12,000 employees. is an Atlanta-based federal agency charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats.
Formerly an infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Walensky had no experience running a government health agency when she was sworn in on the first day of the Biden administration.
She gained a reputation for being a prominent voice on the pandemic, at times criticizing certain aspects of the government’s response. She was brought in to boost morale at the CDC, restore public confidence in the agency and improve the sometimes clumsy response to the pandemic.
She started an outbreak forecasting and analysis center, took steps to modernize data and improve the public health workforce. Last year she started a reorganization to make the agency more agile and to improve communication with the public.
But there have also been stumbles during her tenure.
In the spring of 2021, Walensky said fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in many settings, only to reverse course as the then-new delta variant spread. And in December 2021, the agency’s decision to shorten isolation and quarantine surprised many and caused confusion.
In a statement, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients praised her performance.
“Her creativity, skill and expertise, and sheer perseverance were essential to our effective response and a historic recovery that made the lives of Americans across the country better,” Zients said.